"O ye who believe! Be steadfast witnesses for Allah in equity, and let not hatred of any people seduce you that ye deal not justly. Deal justly, that is nearer to your duty. Observe your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is Informed of what ye do." [Al-maeda ,8]

ISLAMABAD: If you thought that only civilian and politicians got billions of rupees worth of loans written off from state-owned banks, you thought wrong.

Records now show that many top military officers got their loans written off. This lucky lot included five lieutenant generals, two major generals and a battalion of other senior uniformed beneficiaries, with some Army (mis)managed institutions to boot.

The Army controlled institutions also got their share from the national plunder with the Army Welfare Trust (AWT) got a massive loan written off worth Rs 14.49 million from a state-owned financial entity, which is now defunct (hardly a surprising fate).

Some of the cases were, however, genuine as their loans were written off in accordance with rules.

According to the official list of loan write-off beneficiaries tabled in the National Assembly, Lt General (retd) Ali Kuli Khan and his father Lt General Habibullah Khan had their loans written off. General Kuli had shot to prominence when he was ignored by the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif in favour of Gen Musharraf in a bid to succeed General Jehangir Karamat as the next COAS.

The list shows that General Kuli Khan got two loans written off from the Allied Bank of Pakistan while he was still serving in the Army in the mid 90s. The first loan was of Rs1.8 million and second was Rs1.6 million outstanding against Janana De Malucho Textile Mills Limited, Kohat owned by his father General (retd) Habibullah Khan. General Kuli was then one of the directors of the textile mills. After the death of General Habib, he became the chief executive of this textile unit. General Habib, too, was a beneficiary of this loan write off.

It’s a little known fact that Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had once served as the staff officer to General Ali Kuli Khan during his stint as Chairman Joint Chiefs of staff in 1998 when Jahangir Karamat was the Chief of Army Staff (COAS). General Kuli shot to prominence within the ruling political circles when he was heard opposing the forced resignation of General Kamarat and had indicated to make Nawaz Sharif ‘fall in line’ if he became the next COAS. Later, Gen Kuli Khan had denied this charge in an interview with this correspondent. But, Ch Nisar Ali Khan had also confirmed to this correspondent in an interview that Ali Kuli was not elevated to the post of the Army chief precisely for this reason after some of his quotes were conveyed to Nawaz Sharif.

Talking to The News from Peshawar, General (retd) Ali Kuli Khan said that he “did not remember” getting any loan written off by him during his military service. General Kuli said, “There might be some rescheduling of the loans by the banks outstanding against the mills.” He said only the politicians get loans written off by using their clout. Of course, general can dare anyone argue with that logic.

Lt General (retd) K M Azhar, who later became active in politics, of Rex Breen Batteries got Rs16 million written off by the Agriculture Development Bank. His business partners were Misbah Azhar, Sward Azhar, Ahmed Jamal Siddiqui, Syed Ijaz Ahmed Hashmi, Mauro Dr Bashir Ahmed.

Lt General (retd) SA Burkey and Lt General (retd) Safdar Butt also figure amongst the happy generals benefiting from the state institutions generosity.

Another prominent name on the list is that of Air Marshal (retd) A Rahim Khan.

Gohar Ayub Khan, brother of General Kuli Khan—Raza Kuli Khan also got a loan of Rs7.2 million written off against Rehana Woolen Mills. Tariq Ayub Khan, Zahid Ahsan, Ahsan Khan were the directors of the mills whose loan was written off by the financial institution SAPICO.

Major General (retd) M Mumtaz from Abbottabad, Lt Colonel (retd) Shaukat and Major (retd) Tajuddin Rs1.2 million, Major General (retd) Ghaziuddn are also in the list. Major General (retd) G Umar also got Rs8.5 million written off from the Agriculture Development Bank.

Lt General (retd) Safdar Butt, Major General (retd) Abdullah Malik, Brig (retd) M M Mahmood, Col (retd) M Zafar Khan, Mohammad Afzal Khan, Mrs Hamida Farhat also got benefits from the UBL. General (retd) Abdullah had resigned after the military coup of General Zia and had opposed the military take over of July 1977.

Talking to The News, Brig (retd) Mahmood denied that his industrial unit EFF, EFF Industries had got the loan written off. He clarified that he had entered into an agreement with the bank but this package was never implemented until recently.

A Lt-Col, who owned the Meditex Intl got Rs6.322 million written off from the HBL. His business partner was Col (retd) Bashir Ahmed. Commander Abdul Latif also got Rs 10 million written off. Shangrila Macropole Inn, Lahore got Rs4.3 million loan written off. Brig (retd) Mohammad Aslam Khan and Co got Rs4.3 million written off. Feroz Sons Textile Mills Mirpur owners Col (retd) Munir Hussain, Nasim Farms’s and Major General (retd) Qazi Nasim Majeed are also among the beneficiaries.